by Richard Wonderly
1/384 SS/USS Kroonland (Scratchbuilt)
I scratchbuilt this model of the SS Kroonland/USS Kroonland after a visit to a museum where I had seen a display about American built merchant ships and ships that served during World War One. The SS Kroonland was part of the IMM (International Mercantile Marine) group, J.P. Morgan’s attempt to dominate shipping on the North Atlantic, which included the American Line, Red Star Line and White Star, among other companies. Originally serving as a Red Star liner, the Kroonland later became an American Line vessel.
More interestingly, she served during World War One as troopship and wore several different camouflage schemes, from dazzle, to disruptive to finally, just plain gray. I chose this paint scheme because it was the only one that I could find a complete view of the ship and where the colors were known and I didn’t want to paint her just plain gray overall. However, the only clear view of the Kroonland was of her starboard side, so rather than just guess on her port side paint, I chose to do a half and half scheme, with the port side wearing her Red Star line colors.
She is built from scratch with a solid wood carved hull, plastic and wood superstructure and decking, brass funnels, plastic ventilar cowls, brass masts and booms and various scratch built details and scratch built lifeboats and rafts. And I’ve also scavenged some parts from my spares box and leftover brass parts. For the same reasons of lack of clear photos or plans, I built her as a waterline display rather than full hull as I was unsure of her underwater lines.
